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Creeslough parish priest Fr John Joe Duffy has called on the public to keep the people of the Donegal village in their thoughts and prayers in the months ahead as he acknowledged messages of support from around the country and the world.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland, Fr Duffy, who has been a prominent voice for the community in days since the tragedy that killed ten people, said Creeslough was “just at the beginning of a long journey of recovery”.
Fr Duffy said he was one of the community himself and that the community was his family. “It’s like I lost brothers and sisters” in the blast, he said. No community should have to experience what had happened in Creeslough, he added.
[ Justine McCarthy: How Creeslough’s priest reminded us of the church’s still-vital role ]
He repeated a call made at a funeral Mass on Thursday for people to avail of counselling services, having said he would be seeking help himself. The human body is fragile as is the human mind, he told RTÉ, which meant that local people would need “lots of support”.
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People from all over the world, from around Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States had offered words of support, he said, adding messages “will carry us at this time”.
The funeral for the oldest victim in the Creeslough explosion is taking place in St Michael’s Church, Creeslough, on Friday morning.
Farmer Hugh Kelly (59) will be the eighth person that the small community will honour at a service since 10 people were killed in the Co Donegal explosion a week ago.
At the funeral for Leona Harper (14) on Thursday, those attending heard that the families and communities impacted by the tragedy are “lost in a fog of grief” and painful sadness.
Mourners at her funeral at St Mary’s Church in Ramelton, Co Donegal, heard how her parents, Hugh and Donna, talked of their daughter as a “gem” that shone brightly.
Fr Duffy told mourners at the church that the community of Creeslough was growing in strength each day to get through the hours and days ahead.
“Creeslough is a small village, but it is now more than just that. It is now a word for determination, for resolve and for togetherness and how important togetherness is,” he said.
“This tragedy has reignited within all of us, myself included, that each one of us are only as strong as the families we have around us, only as strong as the community that surrounds us.”
A funeral for the youngest victim, Shauna Flanagan Garwe (5), and her father Robert Garwe (50) will take place on Saturday.